Toyota India Roadmap For 2011-12

Yesterday we attended a press conference by Toyota Motors India at New Delhi, India on the event of launch of Toyota’s first hatchback car for India– The Toyota Etios Liva petrol small car. You can check out the details of the Liva at –

After the car was announced, there was a small Question and Answers session with the Toyota’s top management in India and some interesting facts were shared by them regarding Toyota’s strategy in India related to its small car Etios and other launched in general for near future. In this post we will share some on the Insights with you from the session.

Toyota Etios Diesel and Etios Liva Diesel Launch Timeline In India

Toyota top management revealed that they have readied the Diesel engine technology for the Etios but the timeline for launch is still under consideration and final decision has not been takes as yet. Toyota mentioned that most of the small car buyers drive less than 2000 Km per month and for smaller lengths of drive, petrol engine cars make good financial sense. Toyota will concentrate its energies and efforts to make Etios Brand a popular brand and will try to increase the sales and increase the market share with aggressive marketing and promotions. The Diesel engine versions will be launched sometime later but no specific timeline has been decided for the same as yet.

When we asked Toyota Management about the possibility of Automatic transmission variants of Etios Liva and Toyota EtiosSedan, they replied that they have not yet readied the Automatic transmission variants of Etios as of now because the demand of Automatic transmission cars in the segment of Etios is very low and they will not be launching it anytime soon. The Indian market study conducted by Toyota suggested them not to go for the Automatic variants as of now. Toyota’s main focus as of now is to increase the sales volume of Etios in India.

Toyota Etios and Etios Liva Export From India

On being asked about the possibilities of export from India, Toyota management replied that they have developed this car in India and for India. They will first like to sell it in India markets only as there is a huge demand for the small cars of this segment. There are no export plans as of now for the Etios as the focus is to meet the local demand first as the demand for Etios (sedan) in India as already high and Toyota is working on reducing the waiting period in the deliveries of Etios.

Toyota India Next Major Launch In India

On being asked about the next major launch, Toyota management replied that there will not be a new product launch in the coming one year, but there will be face-lift or new and improved versions of existing vehicles like Toyota Innova and some other existing vehicles of Toyota in India. We expect that Toyota FortunerSUV may also be refreshed.